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Television insiders say that Kelly insisted, when signing her $23 million-a-year contract with NBC last spring, that she could not be forced to do special events such as the winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which start airing on the Peacock Network on Feb. 9.

“She thought she had it all played out perfectly, by saying ‘no’ before the Matt Lauer scandal. [The network was] stupid enough to put in her contract that she could say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ ”

But we’re told that after execs instead gave the gig to Couric — who co-hosted the “Today” show with Lauer from 1997 to 2006, at which point she left the network — Kelly wanted to have it on principle. “[Kelly] complained to her staff, she complained to her agent, so that [NBC News chairman Andrew Lack] would hear about the fact that she was unhappy, but he didn’t care.”

But an NBC News insider told us that there’s “zero truth” to this, adding that it’s “laughable since [the opening ceremony is] the least desirable gig in broadcasting, given the inevitable brutal reviews.” The insider also disputed that Lack — the man who personally fired Lauer — thinks that Kelly is a “diva,” insisting that “no one at NBC has ever heard him ever use the word ‘diva’ about anyone.” NBC News and reps for Kelly declined to comment.